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Discussion of C.H. Cooley's "Social Consciousness"

MR. ALVAN
A. TENNEY
COLUMBIA ,UNIVERSITY

On account of the
unavoidable absence of Professor Giddings, I should like to present a thought
which, it seems to me, he would have emphasized at this time. If, in spite of
four years' work with him, I misinterpret his point of view, I hope that those
of you who have a more accurate knowledge of his ideas will make the necessary
corrections.

The speaker of the
evening has apparently assumed that his subject, "Social Consciousness," is
equivalent to the phrase "social self-consciousness." It is, of course, true
that progress is likely to be more and more harmonious, the greater the amount
of rational and purposive effort attained by a society which is capable of
appreciating the results of its own action—is sufficiently self-conscious to
exercise rational control over itself. It is also true, however, that social
consciousness includes mental phenomena that are in large measure the result of
feeling, and not of any such process of thought concerning the content of the
social mind as the term "self-consciousness" implies. If any of you have been
present at a negro revival meeting, you will realize what I mean. You will
doubtless remember certain phenomena which may accurately be considered phases
of a certain form of social consciousness, but which could hardly be described
as phenomena of social self-consciousness. Certain things were going on which
could not have taken place had there not been a number of persons associated. No
one of the participants would have acted as he did had he been alone. It is
hardly conceivable, however, that there was any rational attempt on the part of
those exhibiting these phenomena to understand their significance. Of social
self-consciousness there was none; of social consciousness, much.

The suggestion, then,
that I wish to make is that feeling is an extremely important element in social
consciousness. The members of a society like this, accustomed to rational
reflection, are perhaps likely to overestimate the importance of social
self-consciousness as an explanation of existing social conditions. It may be
that the forces of the physical environment, the influence of which Professor
Lindsay has emphasized, register themselves in social feeling far more potently
than we imagine, and that social feeling plays a greater part in the social
process than has yet been suspected.

Notes

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